National Republicans
What If It’s Close Again?
This election showed how closely – and bitterly – divided Americans are. Suppose we go through another 2000 cliff-hanger one day? Increasingly, we don’t just hold different views and opinions from our opponents. We hold them in contempt. We call them ignorant, bigoted, fascistic, communistic, unpatriotic and un-America. We question a winner’s very legitimacy.…
Read MoreWhich Way for North Carolina?
The decision about Obamacare highlights the tension that will mark North Carolina’s politics the next four years. The tension stems from an election that saw the nation go in one direction (largely Democratic) and North Carolina in another (almost all Republican). When political partisans win an election, they tend to believe that an…
Read MoreBoehner Offers a Compromise
The day after the election House Republican Leader John Boehner faced a tough question: Would he compromise with Obama or not? It was a Hobson’s Choice. Either way he was walking into a political minefield. In the end Speaker Boehner threw what looked like a compromise on the table – in effect, saying to…
Read MoreThe Biased Media?
Over on The Atlantic magazine’s website the liberal reporters were having a happy day after the election but not, as you’d expect, by celebrating Obama’s victory – instead, they were having a fine time ribbing conservative pundits from Ann Coulter to Karl Rove because they had said the polls that showed Obama leading Mitt Romney…
Read MoreRevenge of the Nerds
This election’s winners include not only data nerds like Nate Silver, but also the Obama campaign’s numbers-crunchers. Wasn’t data analysis supposed to be Romney’s strength at Bain and the Olympics? The Obama staff – parodied as a bunch of soft-headed, socialist community organizers – were precise and efficient in their targeting and resource allocation.…
Read MoreWhy Republicans Lost Nationally?
Last Tuesday, nationally, was a pretty fine day for Democrats: President Obama not only won, Democrats gained Senate seats, House seats, four states voted for gay marriage and two states voted for legalizing medical marijuana. Since the morning after the election the TV and newspaper pundits have been gesticulating furiously over who’s to blame…
Read MoreHumorless
Albert, arguing, said, You’re wrong. Folks don’t care if politicians lie and steal – they expect them to do that. What’s more, they’ll vote for a crook who can fix the potholes in their street over a bungling saint every time. I chalked that up to an otherwise garrulous man’s streak of skepticism but…
Read MoreThe Redskins Rule
I woke up yesterday feeling Romney would win but after a dozen calls from people asking about polls in Ohio (not one of which shows Romney leading) I went to bed thinking, Every single poll can’t be wrong. This morning, at the crack of dawn, I got Dick Morris’ predictions saying all the polls…
Read MoreIf Obama Wins…
The baffling question is how Mitt Romney lost. If ever this was a challenger’s race to win, this was it. The economy is bad. Obama is an activist in an anti-government age. He has never done a good job of selling his record. He was not a great candidate this year. He bombed in the…
Read MoreGOP: Grand Obstruction Party
Worst rationale for voting for Romney: maybe Democrats will cooperate with him, unlike Republicans who refused to work with Obama. D.G. Martin asked about that argument when he interviewed Carter, Tom Drew and me on WCHL last week. That rewards obstructionism. It rewards Washington Republicans who set out from the beginning of President…
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